Category Archives: Tombstone Tuesday

Tombstone Tuesday: Marguerite Chicoine

Whenever I hear that someone is a Chicoine, I assume that we’re related. From what I’ve been able to learn, most, if not all of those who bear the Chicoine surname – in the United States, at least – can trace their ancestry to the early settlers of Quebec. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, many of these French Canadian Chicoines immigrated to New England, and from there, many moved on to settle in southeastern South Dakota. The Ancestry.com surname map reflects this migration pattern.

Grave of Marguerite (Chicoine) Adam, 1816-1878, Saint Aloysius Cemetery, Indian Orchard, Hampden, Massachusetts; image date 1987, privately held by Brian Adam [personal information withheld].

The last of my ancestors to carry the Chicoine surname was Marguerite Chicoine of Indian Orchard, Hampden County, Massachusetts.¹ Marguerite was baptized on 31 August 1816 in Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, the daughter of Leon Chicoine, a forgeron, or blacksmith, and Marie Varie.²According to family lore, which has not been verified, Marguerite was of Native American (First Nation) descent through her mother.³

Marguerite married Timothée Adam on 23 October 1837 in Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.⁴ They farmed in Saint-Hyacinthe County,⁵ and together, they had at least sixteen children, fourteen of whom survived to adulthood: Timothee (I), Marguerite, Marie, Julienne, Timothee (II), Louis, Joseph, Marie Vitaline, Pierre Pie, Joseph Magloire, Euclide, Marie Elisa, Marie Arcelia, Elzear Henry, Prosper Phillip Adam, and an anonymous infant who did not live longer than two days.

By 1865, Marguerite had relocated with her family to Massachusetts, to a community where many, including her husband, sought work in the cotton mills.⁶ However, her time there was short-lived; Marguerite succumbed to consumption on 12 September 1878, days after she turned sixty-two.⁷ She is buried at the Saint Aloysius Cemetery in Indian Orchard, Hampden County, Massachusetts.⁸

Note: This blog post was updated on 27 May 2020 to include the name of an additional child of Marguerite Chicoine.

Continue reading →

Tombstone Tuesday: Hedwig Cichos

3 Replies

“She was a good old German,” recalled one of the grandchildren of Hedwig “Hattie” (Cichos) Lutz Rindfleisch of Minnesota Lake, Faribault County, Minnesota.¹ Raised in what is now Poland, Hattie came to America in 1873 at the age of eighteen.² Although she married twice, neither of her husbands was buried at her side.

Grave of Hedwig (Cichos) Lutz Rindfleisch (1855-1944), Saint John the Baptist Catholic Cemetery, Blue Earth County, Minnesota; image date unknown, privately held by A.S. [personal information withheld], 2013.

Hattie’s first husband, Joseph Lutz,³ died of tuberculosis in 1887.⁴ According to family lore, a wooden cross once marked his grave, but it has long since disappeared.⁵ Hattie was still a young woman at this time, however, and with four children at home, she made what was no doubt a practical decision to remarry less than a year after his death.⁶Unfortunately, Albert Rindfleisch, with whom she had five more children, was said to have struggled with alcoholism.⁷ By 1900, he had left his family, and he allegedly made his way to Milwaukee.⁸ Records indicate that he may have wound up at the Milwaukee County Infirmary, formerly known as the Milwaukee County Almshouse and Poor Farm.⁹

In his absence, Hattie supported her family as a seamstress, and, with three acres of land, proved to be remarkably self-sufficient. She kept a milk cow and chickens, saving the egg money for groceries, and she also raised pigs. She prepared her own ham, bacon, sausage, braunschweiger, and pickled pigs feet. Hattie surely also grew her own vegetables; one of her grandchildren remembers her making sauerkraut for what must have been hearty, home-cooked meals.¹⁰

Hattie was eighty-nine years old when she passed away on 10 November 1944. She is buried at Saint John the Baptist Catholic Cemetery on the border of Blue Earth County and Faribault County, Minnesota.¹¹

SOURCES
¹ William “Bill” Catlin, conversation with the author, September 2002; notes in author’s files. The late Mr. Catlin was the grandson of Hedwig (Cichos) Lutz Rindfleisch and was acquainted with her until her death, at which time he was thirty years old.
² “New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 December 2013), manifest, S.S. Hansa, Bremen to New York, arriving 13 November 1873, Hedwig Cluchas [Cichos]; citing National Archives microfilm M237, roll 384.
³ “Minnesota, Marriages, 1849-1950,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 9 Dec 2013), Joseph Lutz and Hedwig Joice or Tchrichor [Cichos], 19 April 1875.
⁴ “Mr. Joseph Lutze,” Wells (Minnesota) Advocate, 5 May 1887.
⁵ William “Bill” Catlin, conversation with the author, 2002.
⁶ “Minnesota, County Marriages, 1860-1949,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 9 Dec 2013), Albert Rindfleisch and Hedwig Lutz, 29 December 1887.
⁷ William “Bill” Catlin, conversation with the author, 2002.
⁸ 1900 U.S. census, Faribault County, Minnesota, population schedule, Minnesota Lake, Enumeration District (ED) 92, sheet 10-B, p. 4834 (handwritten), dwelling 178, family 178, Hattie Rindfleisch; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 December 2013), citing National Archives microfilm T623, roll 763.
⁹ 1930 U.S. census, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, population schedule, Wauwatosa, Enumeration District (ED) 40-385, sheet 7-B, p. 5401 (handwritten), Milwaukee County Infirmary, Albert Rindfleisch; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 December 2013), citing National Archives microfilm T623, roll 763.
¹⁰ William “Bill” Catlin, conversation with the author, 2002.
¹¹ Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, digital image (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 9 December 2013), photograph, Hedwig B. Rindfleisch (1855-1944), Memorial No. 23967168, Saint John the Baptist Catholic Cemetery, Blue Earth County, Minnesota; photograph by judyvv.

Tombstone Tuesday: Paulus and Elisabeth (Schmidt) Thoma

1 Reply

Grave of Paulus Thoma (1801-1882) and Elisabeth Thoma (1804-1862), Garnavillo City Cemetery, Garnavillo, Clayton County, Iowa; digital image 2007, privately held by Melanie Frick, 2013.

The mid-nineteenth century saw what could be considered a virtual exodus of families who left their home village in Bavaria for the farmland of northeastern Iowa. Paulus and Elisabeth (Schmidt) Thoma of Weißenstadt, Wunsiedel, Bavaria, Germany were among them. Paulus was a weaver by trade,¹ and together, he and Elisabeth raised eight children: John Conrad, William Henry, Anna Rosina, Frederick, Anna Sabina, Maria Magdalena, Ursula Pauline, and Anna Margaretha.

In 1852, Paulus and Elisabeth traveled with seven of their children from Bremen to New Orleans, undoubtedly an exhausting journey. They were accompanied on the Uhland by ten others from Weißenstadt, a small sampling of the immigrant families who had likely been linked for generations and chose to resettle together in America.² Upon arrival in New Orleans, the Thoma family traveled by way of the Mississippi River to reach their destination of northeastern Iowa.³ Several years later, Paulus and Elisabeth were joined by their eldest son and his family.⁴

Once settled, Paulus apparently put his weaving aside for a farmer’s life in Garnavillo, Clayton County, Iowa. I thought perhaps he would have raised sheep for wool, but, at least as of 1860, crops of wheat, Indian corn, and oats seem to have been his primary focus. At this time, he farmed over two hundred acres of improved land.⁵

Elisabeth (Schmidt) Thoma passed away in 1862, after only ten years in Iowa.⁶ Five years after her death, Paulus, now well into his sixties, remarried to Maria Krueger.⁷ By 1870, Paulus was declared on the census to be an “invalid” due to “old age.”⁸ He survived for more than a decade longer, however, although his “old age” was noted again on the 1880 U.S. census.⁹ Ultimately, he survived his first wife by twenty years; Paulus passed away in 1882, and he and Elisabeth share a headstone at the Garnavillo City Cemetery in Garnavillo, Clayton County, Iowa.¹⁰

SOURCES
¹ “New Orleans, Passenger Lists, 1813-1945” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 November 2013), manifest, Uhland, Bremen, Germany to New Orleans, arriving 18 June 1852, Paulus Thoma; citing National Archives microfilm M259, roll 36.
² “New Orleans, Passenger Lists, 1813-1945” digital images, Ancestry.com, manifest, Uhland, Bremen, Germany to New Orleans, arriving 18 June 1852, Paulus Thoma.
³Diane Haddad, “Riverboat Migration Records,” Family Tree Magazine (http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/Whatever-Floats-Your-Riverboat : accessed 1 November 2013).
⁴ “New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 October 2013), manifest, Anna Delano, Bremen, Germany to New York, arriving 23 June 1855, J.C. Thoma; citing National Archives microfilm M237, roll 153.
⁵ 1860 U.S. census, Clayton County, Iowa, agriculture schedule, Garnavillo, p. 5 (penned), line 11, Paul Thoma; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 October 2013), citing “Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880.”
⁶ Grave of Elisabeth [Schmidt] Thoma, 1804-1862, Garnavillo City Cemetery, Garnavillo, Clayton County, Iowa; digital image 2007, privately held by Melanie Frick, 2013.
⁷ “Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 01 Nov 2013), Paulus Thoma and Mary Krueger, 1867.
⁸ 1870 U.S. census, Clayton County, Iowa, population schedule, Garnavillo, p. 17 (penned), dwelling 116, family 114, Paul Toma; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 October 2013), citing National Archives microfilm M593, roll 383.
⁹ 1880 U.S. census, Clayton County, Iowa, population schedule, Garnavillo, Enumeration District (ED) 133, p. 362 (stamped), dwelling 207, family 218, Paul Thoma; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 October 2013), citing National Archives microfilm T9, roll 333.
¹⁰ Grave of Paulus Thoma, 1801-1882, Garnavillo City Cemetery, Garnavillo, Clayton County, Iowa; digital image 2007, privately held by Melanie Frick, 2013.

Tombstone Tuesday: Ernst and Friederike (Wagner) Stübe

3 Replies

Word traveled fast in the genealogical community yesterday when it was announced that Ancestry.com had acquired Find A Grave. (Yes, it will still be free.) Find A Grave has grown to be an invaluable database of gravestone images worldwide based on collaborative efforts by volunteers. Frequently, photographs, biographies, and obituaries are included alongside the gravestone images, and visitors can leave virtual tributes.

Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, digital image (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 1 October 2013), photograph, Friedrieka Stube (1843-1891) and Ernst Stube (1839-1879), Memorial Nos. 67992191 and 67992204, Huntley Cemetery, Huntley, Illinois; photograph by Zavada Family, 2012.

Did you know that if there is not a photograph of your ancestor’s grave already online, you are able to put a request out to volunteers via Find A Grave? Thanks to a volunteer for the Huntley Cemetery of Huntley, McHenry County, Illinois, I was able to see the graves of my ancestors Ernst and Friederike (Wagner) Stübe from miles away.

My grandmother had visited their graves years ago and had made rubbings of the fading German inscriptions on the headstones. Unfortunately, the sandstone-like headstones were slowly but surely wearing away through the weather extremes of northern Illinois. I had no clear photographs of the graves, and hoped that someone might be able to confirm to me that they were still standing and at least somewhat legible. Thanks to the aforementioned volunteer, who very kindly gave permission for her photographs to be used for personal genealogical purposes online and made not one, but two trips to the Huntley Cemetery to photograph the graves of Ernst and Friederike (Wagner) Stübe, they are now documented on Find A Grave.¹

Ernst and Friederike (Wagner) Stübe, originally of Friedrichshof, Ritteramt Gnoien, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany,² arrived in New York in October of 1869.³ Their eldest daughter, Emma, my direct ancestor, was barely two years old at the time of their crossing; three more daughters, Lena, Minna, and Bertha, were later born in Illinois.⁴ The family lived in Chicago for a time, likely witnessing the Great Chicago Fire of 1871,⁵ before relocating to a farm near Huntley, McHenry County, Illinois. Later, it was recalled that, “Surrounding the cabin was a large garden space and a beautiful garden. All that remains is a pile of stones. It was located on what is now the Dieke farm directly across from the Harold Kunde farm on the Clanyard farm.”⁶

In 1879, ten years after his arrival in America, Ernst died at the age of forty.⁷ No death certificate could be located to provide details on what befell him.⁸ Shortly thereafter, Friederike relocated again to Chicago, where she supported her young daughters, ranging in age from two to twelve, as a seamstress.⁹ Life was surely difficult for this single mother of four; Friederike succumbed to typhoid fever in 1891, when she was forty-eight.¹⁰ She was buried beside her husband at the Huntley Cemetery.¹¹

Do you have a Find A Grave success story?

SOURCES
¹ Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, digital image (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 1 October 2013), photograph, Ernst Stube (1839-1879) and Friedrieka Stube (1843-1891), Memorial Nos. 67992204 and 67992191, Huntley Cemetery, Huntley, Illinois; photograph by Zavada Family.
² Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, Census, 1867,” Friedrichshof, Ritteramt Gnoien, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, Ernst Stübe; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 October 2013), citing Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Großherzogtum), Volkszählungsamt, “Volkszählung am 3. Dezember 1867,” Landeshauptarchiv Schwerin, 5.12-3/20 Statistisches Landesamt (1851-1945).
³ “New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 October 2013), manifest, S.S. Silesia, Hamburg, Germany to New York, arriving 12 October 1869, Ernst Stübe; citing National Archives microfilm M237, roll 319.
⁴ 1880 U.S. census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, Chicago, Enumeration District (ED) 144, p. 257-C (handwritten), dwelling 25, family 74, Ricka Stüve; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 October 2013), citing National Archives microfilm T9, roll 196.
⁵“U.S, City Directories, 1821-1989,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 October 2013), entry for Ernst Stube; citing “Chicago, Illinois City Directory, 1872 (Chicago: Richard Edwards, Publisher, 1872),” page number not cited.
⁶ Louise (née Nelson) Wiese to Phyllis (née Wiese) Adam, letter, 2 April 1964, providing information about the family tree; Adam Family; privately held [personal information withheld].
⁷ Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, digital image (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 1 October 2013), photograph, Ernst Stube (1839-1879), Memorial No. 67992204, Huntley Cemetery, Huntley, Illinois; photograph by Zavada Family.
⁸ McHenry County, Illinois, certification that record was not found, issued 19 July 2012, no death record located for Ernst Stube or Stuve who died 24 August 1879 in Huntley, search conducted from 1877-1905; County Clerk’s Office, Woodstock.
⁹ 1880 U.S. census, Cook Co., Ill., pop. sch., Chicago, ED 144, p. 257-C, dwell. 25, fam. 74, Ricka Stüve.
¹⁰ Cook County, Illinois, death certificate no. 16007, “Friedricka Stube,” 3 May 1891; digital image, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 3 January 2012). Note: Images no longer available through FamilySearch.
¹¹ Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, digital image (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 1 October 2013), photograph, Friedrieka Stube (1843-1891), Memorial No. 67992191, Huntley Cemetery, Huntley, Illinois; photograph by Zavada Family.